


Rey's Ancestry (A Star Wars Fan-Fiction)

by Elinor_Nobody



Category: Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Abandonment, F/M, Family History, Orphan - Freeform, Star Wars - Freeform, origin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:56:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 17,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21859378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elinor_Nobody/pseuds/Elinor_Nobody
Summary: THIS IS MY LAST CHANCE TO GET THIS OUT THERE BEFORE THE NEW MOVIE COMES OUT!!! HOPEFULLY, SOMEONE WILL READ IT AND LIKE IT BEFORE GOING TO SEE THE NEW MOVIE AND FINDING OUT WHAT REALLY HAPPENED!!!First, let me make it clear that I do not own Star Wars or the characters within.I should have posted this a long time ago, but was prevented from doing so by my extremely severe social anxiety. But, the new movie premiers in about ten hours, so it's now or never!Anyway, in this story, one woman finds something that she did not expect when she seeks to conceal her Force-sensitive child on a desert planet. Years later, another woman finds something that she did not expect when she seeks answers about her mysterious powers.I used a Star Wars name generator to get the names of the original characters, but I'm afraid I have no idea who came up with that name generator.I really hope that I don't offend anyone, and if I do, then I sincerely apologize!





	1. A Message from Beyond the Grave

**Author's Note:**

> TRIGGER WARNINGS: graves, unhappy memories, fire, screams, anger, murder of children, slavery, grief, stabbing, dying in front of loved ones, dying in the delivery room, betrayal, burns, ghosts, exile, revolutions, thirst, aging, heat, lost family members, losing everything, prejudice, failure, children being taken from parents, hatred, not being allowed to be oneself, nightmares, sadness, volcanos, dragons, falling rocks, panic, fear, frustration, swords, helplessness, combat, love, passion, lies, disloyalty, indecision, consummation of relationships, killing, fury, child death, blame, break-ups, firefights, parent death, loss of favourite possession, wishing for death, hiding unborn child from father, not knowing one's father, being an orphan, being shot down, vehicular crash, blood, dying alone, quicksand, no rescue, child abuse, garbage, oppression, severed and decayed body parts, contagious dark emotions, broken things, the black market, visions, the word suicide, arguments, being caught breaking in, being blackmailed, being forced to kill, strangling, lightning, lost limbs, mistaken identity, being chased out of one's home, cute children, anxiety attacks, flashbacks, PTSD, mind-reading, not getting along with one's father, bad influences, hiding one's children, memory erasing, feeling abandoned, alcohol, something cute turning evil, graphic violence... If I missed yours, I'm sorry!

Obi-Wan knelt at Shmi Skywalker’s grave, silently imploring her to forgive him.  
“Uncle Ben!” called a tiny voice from somewhere behind him.  
Obi-Wan turned and saw two-year-old Luke Skywalker running towards him.  
“Hello there!” said Obi-Wan.  
Obi-Wan was always glad to see the sweet little boy he had dedicated the rest of his life to protecting, but he knew that the Larses would not be happy about the former Jedi being on their property again, despite his repeated attempts to convince them that he would rather die than bring Luke to any sort of harm.  
“Oh, no you don’t!” said Owen Lars, running out of the house and grabbing Luke.  
“But it’s Uncle Ben!” whined Luke.  
“He’s not your uncle! I am!” said Owen Lars. “He’s just a crazy old man, and you need to stay away from him!”  
“But why?!” said Luke, near tears.  
“Because I said so!” said Owen Lars. “And as for you, Kenobi, if you really want to protect Luke as much as you claim to, you’ll stay away from him! I won’t have you doing to him whatever you did to his father!”  
Naturally, that remark really struck a nerve, so Obi-Wan left without another word.  
That night, back in his own home, Obi-Wan couldn’t sleep.  
Normally, he could use his Jedi training to supress any of the horrible emotions and memories that threatened what was left of his sanity, but tonight, possibly due to his earlier encounter with Owen Lars, he found himself really missing Anakin.  
Before he could stop them, horrible memories of fire and screams and rage came flooding back to him. He wished he could take his lightsaber and cut out the memory of the person he had loved like a brother murdering those children and then kneeling before that Dark Lord.  
Obi-Wan wished that he had never met Anakin. Then at least Anakin would have been safe, and at least he would have grown up with a parental figure who loved him and let him know it. Then, when Shmi was freed by the Larses, Anakin would have been freed too, and then he would have spent the rest of his childhood safe on the Lars farm with his loving mother.  
Obi-Wan had never been an affectionate person, not even with Satine Kryze, the woman he had loved, and the Jedi Code was against any kind of love or affection anyway. It was Obi-Wan’s devotion to the Jedi Code that had prevented him from showing any of the parental affection that Anakin had clearly needed, and it had even blinded him to how much he had loved Anakin. But however blind he had been to it, it had been his love for Anakin that had prevented him from seeing what Anakin had been turning into.  
Now, he saw it all so clearly, but now it was too late.  
Looking back to around the time when he first met Anakin, he remembered sensing, more strongly than anyone else, the darkness and danger surrounding the nine-year-old boy. Now he knew why. It had not just been the doom that Anakin was to bring to the whole galaxy, but the pain that he would bring to Obi-Wan specifically.  
If there was one thing that Obi-Wan wished that he could have learned from his Jedi training, it was how not to love. After all, everyone that Obi-Wan had ever loved had died right in front of him. Qui-Gon and Satine had both died in his arms, after having been stabbed by the same Sith Lord years apart. Padme had faded away in the delivery room as he held her newborn son in his arms…  
But most horrible of all had been Anakin.  
He’d walked away that day thinking that he had let Anakin burn to death on Mustafar. It was eight months into his exile on Tatooine that he had learned that Anakin had suffered a much worse fate, and he’d realized that, someday, he might face the twisted machine that the person he’d loved most had become, and would have to kill him or die trying.  
Somehow, even now, Anakin was still the last person in the universe Obi-Wan would ever want to kill… with the possible exception of Luke and Leia.  
Then, with a sickening realization, he remembered how, when Anakin was twelve years old, Obi-Wan had been so annoyed with him that he wished that he could be rid of Anakin and spend a nice, relaxing year in silent meditation on a desert planet somewhere.  
Now, Obi-Wan knew that he would trade all of the years that he had left to have Anakin back, no matter how annoying he was.  
He wondered how many years of silent meditation it would take for him to never love anyone again.  
“Obi-Wan…” came a familiar voice.  
It was Qui-Gon!  
“Master?” said Obi-Wan. “It’s been so long! I’ve missed you!”  
“And I you,” said Qui-Gon, “but that’s not why I’m here now. Obi-Wan, there is a farm twenty-seven miles west of here. If you really want to protect the good that Anakin has done and ensure the future balance of the Force, you need to find it.”  
“But Master,” said Obi-Wan, “Surely you must know that I’ve lost Anakin forever. Surely you must know that the prophecy was wrong!”  
“Perhaps,” said Qui-Gon, “but Anakin’s life isn’t over yet. He may yet bring balance to the Force before he dies. And if you want to protect that balance, you need to find that farm.”  
“But Master,” said Obi-Wan, “how can I protect something that doesn’t exist?”  
But Qui-Gon would say nothing more.


	2. Blaca and Holto

The next morning, Obi-Wan set out on his twenty-seven-mile journey across the desert to find that farm. Even with his Jedi endurance, he still had to stop and rest a few times along the way, but he always felt his former master’s silent presence urging him on.  
Finally, but sooner than he had expected, he saw a farmhouse much like the Lars homestead off in the distance.  
As he got closer, he wondered why Qui-Gon had sent him here. The farm seemed to be doing just fine.  
And now he was very far from Luke Skywalker, the child he was supposed to protect.  
He wondered if, perhaps, someone who lived here was in danger.  
Just as he was about to knock on the door, a woman of about forty came around from the back of the house. She stopped short when she saw Obi-Wan standing there.  
She was the most beautiful woman Obi-Wan had seen since Satine. In fact, she reminded him a great deal of Satine. She had the same pale skin, the same blue eyes, the same regal bearing, the same angular features. One noticeable difference, however, was her strawberry-blonde hair. Also, rather than a duchess’s robes, she was wearing garb more typical of Tatooine.  
However, in spite of her simple dress, she did not look like a farmer.  
She looked more like a queen.  
“May I help you?” said the woman.  
Obi-Wan suddenly realized that he had not prepared what to say.  
“Are you lost?” pressed the woman. “You look like you’ve been out in the desert for quite some time. Do you perhaps need food or water?” Then she turned aside and called, “Holto, dear! We have a guest! Come out here and bring him a cup of water!”  
From a nearby building came a boy of about fifteen, with brown hair and brown eyes. Like the woman, he too was dressed simply but carried himself like royalty or nobility. He brought out a cup of water and handed it to Obi-Wan.  
“Oh, no! I couldn’t!” said Obi-Wan.  
“I insist!” said the woman.  
Obi-Wan took the cup and quickly downed its contents. He hadn’t realized how thirsty he was, and the water tasted much better than anything that he had had in a long time.  
“Thank you!” gasped Obi-Wan as he finished. “I feel like I’ve aged ten years since I started on my journey in this blazing heat!”  
“My name is Blaca,” said the woman, “and this is my son, Holto.”  
“Hello!” said Holto.  
He seemed like a nice young man.  
“Won’t you come inside and tell us your story?” said Blaca, leading Obi-Wan into the house. “What’s your name?”  
Obi-Wan caught himself just in time and answered: “Ben. My name is Ben.”  
Obi-Wan was grateful to finally be out of the suns, and as his eyes adjusted to the dark room, he noticed two holographic images on the wall. One of them was of a man, with the same regal bearing as Blaca and Holto, who actually looked very much like Holto, except older and bearded. The other holographic image was of a woman who looked very much like Blaca, except that she had bright red hair and the demeanour of a warrior.  
“Ah!” said Blaca, noticing Obi-Wan looking at the holograms. “That is my husband, Dowro, and that is my sister, Jadma. They both died about five years ago, right around the time my son and I came to Tatooine.”  
“Mother!” said Holto. “We don’t know this man! He could be a spy, sent to find us!”  
“Do you really believe that?” said Blaca.  
Holto closed his eyes for a moment, then said, “No, you’re right, Mother. He’s safe. We can trust him.”  
“I can assure you, I mean you no harm!” said Obi-Wan. “I was searching for a specific farm, but I seem to have gotten turned around in the desert. Do you, by any chance, happen to know the Lars family?”  
“Lars?” said Blaca. “I’m afraid not. We don’t know many people around here. We chose a farm out in the middle of nowhere for a reason. So, as you can imagine, I’m always happy to welcome what few visitors we get and hear news of the galaxy. Tell me, do you know anything about the Clone Wars?”  
Obi-Wan took a deep breath. “Do you really want to know what I know?” he asked.  
“Please, go on!” said Blaca. “Even if the news is bad, my son and I have heard nothing in five years.”  
“Well,” said Obi-Wan, “the war has been over for a little more than two years. I’m afraid we lost. The galaxy is now being ruled by an evil emperor, and my best friend, who fought by my side all throughout the war, is now gone forever. I lost everything in that war.”  
There was a long pause.  
“Oh, dear…” breathed Blaca. “I don’t even know what to say right now… Except… I know what it’s like to lose everything.”  
“You didn’t lose me, Mother!” said Holto. “You’ll never lose me!”  
“If you don’t mind my asking,” said Obi-Wan, “What brought you to Tatooine?”  
“Well,” said Blaca, “That’s kind of a long story. Where to start? Um… Have you ever heard of the planet Oyotom?”  
“It sounds… vaguely familiar…” said Obi-Wan, trying to remember where he had heard the name before.  
“Well,” said Blaca, “my husband, Dowro, and I were once the rulers of that planet, and Holto would have taken our place upon our deaths. But in the early days of the Clone Wars, there was a revolution. Holto and I got out, but Dowro and Jadma… well… they didn’t. My sister thought that she could take them all on by herself, and my husband… my husband sacrificed himself so that my son and I could escape.”  
Blaca buried her face in her hands. Holto moved closer to his mother and put his arms around her, and she returned his embrace.  
Obi-Wan wished he knew what to say to comfort her.  
“I… I…” he stammered. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m just so glad you were able to trust me enough to tell me.”  
Blaca looked up and gazed into Obi-Wan’s eyes, and in that moment, a connection was formed between them.  
Suddenly, Obi-Wan felt a small tremor in the Force as a dishcloth flew from the kitchen area into Holto’s hand. Holto used it to dry his mother’s tears.  
Obi-Wan felt incredibly foolish in that moment. Why had he not seen it before? The boy was Force-sensitive! That must have been why Qui-Gon had insisted on Obi-Wan coming here. Obi-Wan was supposed to train this boy, and then this boy was supposed to do something to change the fate of the galaxy!  
But Obi-Wan knew that he could never train Holto. His failure with Anakin was still far too fresh in his memory.  
But why had this boy not been taken to the Jedi Temple as a toddler, like most Force-sensitive children in the galaxy? It probably had something to do with why the planet Oyotom sounded so familiar to him.  
He really wished that he could have access to the archives in the Jedi Temple.  
“Holto,” said Blaca, “did you just use your telekinesis in front of this stranger?”  
“It’s alright, Mother!” said Holto. “I told you, he’s safe. I can feel it.”  
“If it makes you feel any better,” said Obi-Wan, “until about two years ago, I was a Jedi.”  
Blaca quickly jumped, alarmed, but relaxed again after a moment.  
“I apologize,” said Blaca, “but when one is raised to hate Jedi, even if one does not really do so in her heart…”  
“Is Oyotom hostile to Jedi?” asked Obi-Wan.  
“Very much so!” said Blaca. “You see, about a thousand years ago, Oyotom was enslaved and nearly destroyed by a group of Force-wielders known as the Sith. Ever since then, my people have hated all Force-wielders. In fact, and I am deeply ashamed of my ancestors for this, any child who was born Force-sensitive on our world was killed, and their families were sterilized.”  
That’s when it came back to Obi-Wan. In his early days as a Padawan, he had learned that Oyotom was a planet to be avoided by Jedi at all costs. It was said that any Jedi who set foot on Oyotom was instantly killed.  
“After a while,” continued Blaca, “there were no more Force-sensitive children being born on our planet. Holto was the first one to be born in over five hundred years.”  
“I couldn’t help it!” said Holto. “I never asked to be born with these powers!”  
“Of course not, my darling!” said Blaca. “Nobody is blaming you.”  
“But the revolution was all my fault!” said Holto. “You always told me to conceal my powers, but when that X-wing fell out of the sky, I had to stop that girl from getting crushed! I’d forgotten that there were so many people around!”  
Obi-Wan was growing increasingly uncomfortable as he sensed Holto’s overwhelming emotion. He decided to try to change the subject.  
“And what about you?” said Obi-Wan. “Do you hate Jedi?”  
“Me?” said Blaca. “Well, my parents raised me to hate them, but I don’t know that I ever really did. I don’t think I have it in me to truly hate anyone. But my son was born Force-sensitive, and he is the best young man I know, which means that surely not all Force-wielders are bad.”  
“In my experience,” said Obi-Wan, “most Force-wielders were good. The Jedi have been the protectors of peace and justice for millennia. In fact, for the past thousand years, it was believed that all of the evil Force-Wielders, the Sith, were extinct. It was only recently that they revealed themselves and destroyed us all, including my best friend. That was the most horrible thing that I have ever had to witness.”  
Now it was Obi-Wan’s turn to become emotional, but with his Jedi training, he quickly suppressed it.  
“Are you alright, sir?” said Holto.  
Obi-Wan took a deep breath and said, “Yes, I’m fine. If you wish, Holto, I can teach you to use your powers for good. Maybe that’s what brought me here to your farm. Maybe the Force guided me here so that I could teach you how to properly use it.”  
“And what would I do once I learned how to use it?” said Holto.  
“I don’t know yet,” said Obi-Wan, “but you were given these powers for a reason. I can feel it.”  
“I don’t know…” said Holto. “I’ve been taught for so long that…”  
“I know,” said Obi-Wan, “but I can help you unlearn what you have learned and show you the Light Side of the Force.”  
“What do you think, Mother?” said Holto.  
Despite his apparent reluctance, Obi-Wan could sense that Holto was actually very excited about the prospect of finally being allowed to embrace his powers.  
“I’ve always believed that there had to be a reason for you to be Force-sensitive,” said Blaca, “and it looks like we’re about to find out what that reason is. I think you should let Ben teach you how to use your powers for good.”  
“Well, then,” said Holto, “I’ll do it!”  
“Now, I must warn you,” said Obi-Wan, “that this will not be an easy challenge.”  
“Don’t worry!” said Holto. “Five years ago, I went from being a prince to being a farmer. I’m from Oyotom, and the people of Oyotom can get used to anything… Well, except to Force-sensitive people, of course. That’s why I had to leave. When do lessons start?”  
“Hold on!” said Blaca. “Ben has just been on a long journey! I think that we should let him rest in the spare room and start lessons when he has recovered his strength.”  
Obi-Wan gratefully accepted Blaca’s hospitality.  
That night, Obi-Wan woke up gasping for air after another nightmare about Anakin.  
After scolding himself and reminding himself that Jedi are not supposed to have nightmares, he looked around, and for a moment, forgot where he was. Then he remembered the events of the day before.  
Obi-Wan was still not used to nightmares, and he found himself feeling the irrational need to talk to someone.  
He decided to see if Blaca was awake. He had only known her a few hours, but he already felt as if he could tell her anything.  
He crept out of his room and found the door to Blaca’s room ajar.  
He looked through the small crack in the door and saw Blaca sitting on her bed, looking at a holographic image. He could feel the sadness coming from her in waves. The hologram appeared to be of her wedding day. He recognized Dowro, even though he was younger and not yet bearded. He also recognized a young Blaca. She was wearing a white dress and had riddas woven into her hair. Obi-Wan had seen riddas in solariums on Coruscant, and he’d always thought that they were a rather drab little flower, with their single ring of rounded petals and their jagged leaves. He always wondered how these flowers could have the same name as a type of dragon that lived on the volcanic moon of Diark.  
However, Blaca’s hair made the ridda flowers look like a glorious crown.  
Obi-Wan decided not to disturb Blaca and went back to bed.  
Could it be that he was already beginning to fall for her? Surely that was impossible, so soon after Satine, especially for a Jedi.  
And yet, as he fell asleep, he thought of her continuously, and the nightmares did not return.


	3. The Lessons Begin

The next day, out in the desert, Obi-Wan had Holto try to lift a two-kilogram rock with the Force. So far, Holto was having no luck.  
Obi-Wan didn’t understand it. He had thought before that Holto was unusually good at telekinesis for someone who had had no training.  
Finally, Holto sank to his knees, gasping for air.  
“I can’t!” he wheezed. “It’s too heavy!  
“Didn’t you tell me yesterday that you once saved a girl from getting crushed by an X-wing?” said Obi-Wan.  
“Yes,” said Holto, still gasping for breath, “but in order to do something like that, I need the panic, the fear, the…”  
“Stop right there!” said Obi-Wan. “As a Jedi, the most important thing that you need to learn is that fear is your greatest enemy. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, and hate leads to the Dark Side.”  
“But…” said Holto. “Does that mean I’ve been using the Dark Side?”  
“You say you felt panic when you saved that girl?” said Obi-Wan. “I think you’re confusing panic with intense focus. If you had really panicked, then your mind would have frozen up, and you would have been unable to do anything. I think that you saw that girl about to be crushed, and your mind became intensely focused on saving her, and you achieved a moment of clarity. A Jedi’s mind must always be clear and at peace. If you are motivated by passion, then you are using the Dark Side. Now, clear your mind, and focus only on the rock.”  
“Well,” said Holto, “I’ll try.”  
“No!” said Obi-Wan. “As the Jedi Master who instructed me when I was a Youngling said: ‘Do or do not. There is no try.’”  
“What’s a Youngling?” asked Holto.  
“A Youngling,” said Obi-Wan, “is the first stage of becoming a Jedi. The next stage is Padawan, then Knight, and then Master.”  
“So, am I a Youngling, then?” said Holto.  
“Actually,” said Obi-Wan, “Younglings start their training when they are toddlers. Because of your age, you would skip that step and start as a Padawan, not that that happens often, though. We usually take children to the Temple when they are too young to remember their parents.”  
“Wait a minute!” said Holto. “Are you saying that, if I had been born on a planet other than Oyotom, you would have taken me from my parents when I was a baby?! Why do you take them when they’re so young?!”  
“Because,” said Obi-Wan, “the one time we took a child who was old enough to remember his mother, it ended in disaster. He was a brilliant student, but when he grew up, well, to make a long story short, he… he killed all of the Younglings in the Temple.”  
“I would never kill innocent children!” said Holto.  
“He felt the same way once…” said Obi-Wan, trying to control his emotions and not relive the memories. “But, to answer your other question, if you had been born on a planet less hostile to Jedi, you would have been taken to the Temple to begin your training at an early age, but then you would almost certainly be dead by now. So, it is the will of the Force that you were born on Oyotom, so that you would be alive today. You must have been meant to accomplish something important, and I must have been meant to find you and train you.”  
Holto took a moment to absorb that, and then he extended his hand towards the rock again.  
At first, nothing happened, and Obi-Wan could sense Holto becoming frustrated.  
“Remember,” said Obi-Wan, “clear your mind. Focus only on the rock.”  
As Holto’s mind cleared, the rock slowly lifted off the ground, and then faster and faster shot towards the sky. Holto opened his eyes, saw the rock soaring higher, and gave a shout of triumph. However, at that moment, the rock came hurtling towards the ground again and just barely missed them as it smashed into a thousand pieces.  
Later that day, they were sitting around the dinner table, eating some stew that Blaca had prepared from some local meat.  
“So,” said Holto, “when do I get one of those laser swords?”  
Obi-Wan didn’t know if it would even be possible for Holto to create a new lightsaber or even find an old one. He still had Anakin’s lightsaber, but he didn’t like the idea of anyone but Luke being the one to inherit it. After all, that’s what Anakin would have wanted.  
“Holto!” said Blaca. “I don’t want you using such a dangerous weapon, especially without knowing how!”  
“Oh, don’t worry!” said Obi-Wan. “Holto will have to learn many things before he is allowed to use a real working lightsaber.”  
Obi-Wan could sense Holto’s disappointment at having to wait, and that worried him.  
He remembered sensing the same amount of frustration from Anakin too.  
“I’m sorry, Holto,” said Obi-Wan, “but these things take time. It may take the better part of your life before you are ready to face the Emperor, a Sith Lord so powerful that…”  
Blaca choked on the blue milk that she was drinking.  
“What?!” said Blaca. “You didn’t tell us that the new Emperor was a Sith Lord! And this Sith Lord has seized power over the whole galaxy?!”  
“Yes,” said Obi-Wan, “and…”  
“That means that the Sith have enslaved Oyotom again!” said Blaca in despair.  
“Mother, we have to go back!” said Holto. “If our planet is in trouble, we’ve got to try to save it!”  
“No, Holto!” said Blaca. “If we go back, you’ll be killed!”  
“But Mother…!” said Holto. “They’re our people!”  
“Patience!” said Obi-Wan. “Only when you are ready is there any hope of saving the galaxy and your home planet.”  
“But how will I know when that is?!” cried Holto.  
“Holto, I’m upset too, but there’s nothing we can do!” said Blaca. “And even if we could do something, you would most certainly not be involved.”  
“But Mother…!” said Holto.  
“Holto, we’re done talking about this!” said Blaca.  
The tone in which Blaca had said this made it clear that there was no more room for argument. Holto stormed off to his room without another word.  
“I’m sorry that you had to see that, Ben,” said Blaca, “but you have to understand. Holto is very kind, which I like to think he gets from me, and he is very intelligent, which he gets from his father, but he also takes very much after his aunt, Jadma. She was the best sister I could have wanted, but she was impatient, reckless, and arrogant, and I’m afraid that Holto has some of that in him too.”  
Now Obi-Wan was really beginning to worry that Holto might be too much like Anakin.


	4. A Choice is Made

Months went by.  
Little by little, Holto was getting better at both Force-wielding and combat (although he seemed to be enjoying the latter more.) Obi-Wan was using farm tools to train him in lightsaber technique. He kept the existence of Anakin’s lightsaber a secret, and never used his own.  
Also, little by little, Obi-Wan was falling more and more in love with Blaca.  
He didn’t want to fall in love with her. After all, falling in love would distract him from his mission of training Holto.  
And training Holto was why he had come here in the first place, right?  
He was also very fond of Holto. Training Holto was helping a little bit to ease the pain of having lost Anakin.  
But nobody could ever replace Anakin in Obi-Wan’s heart.  
Also, Obi-Wan had not entirely forgotten about Luke.  
If Obi-Wan had any hope of the galaxy being one day saved, he knew that he had to repress something as passionate as romantic love.  
“There is no Emotion,” Obi-Wan reminded himself, “There is Peace. There is no Ignorance, There is Knowledge. There is no Passion, There is Serenity. There is no Chaos, There is Harmony. There is no Death, There is the Force.”  
“What are you doing?” asked Blaca, pulling him out of his meditation.  
“Oh! Uh…” said Obi-Wan, momentarily flustered. Why had he not sensed her presence? “I’m just trying to make sure that I remember the correct wording to the Jedi Code before I teach it to Holto.”  
“I may not be Force-sensitive,” said Blaca, “but I can tell when you’re not telling the truth.”  
Obi-Wan said nothing.  
“You know,” said Blaca, sitting next to him, “you’ve been staying here with us for quite some time now.”  
Obi-Wan became uneasy. Was she about to send him away?  
“I know,” said Obi-Wan, “and I am truly grateful for your hospitality. I know that I could be doing more to help out around the farm, but…”  
“What I mean…” said Blaca, faltering a little. “What I’m saying is… well… Oh, you would think that this would be easier for someone who was once royalty! But what I’m trying to tell you… Well… I wouldn’t be averse to… Um… I mean, you could stay here forever, if you wanted to. Holto really seems to like you, and he needs a new father figure in his life. And… well… I enjoy your company too.”  
Obi-Wan’s heart involuntarily started to beat faster. Did she really feel the same way about him that he felt about her? He definitely felt a great deal of anxiety coming from her, and also a great deal of hope.  
“Well, what I really mean is…” continued Blaca. “I love you, Ben, and if you’re willing, I want you to stay here with me forever.”  
Obi-Wan did not know what to say at first. Part of him had wanted this desperately, and he did not want to make the same mistake with Blaca that he had made with Satine. He had kept his feelings hidden from her, choosing to stay in the Jedi Order, and then she had died in his arms. He remembered how, if she had only confessed her love for him sooner, he would have left the Jedi Order to be with her.  
Now, Blaca was confessing her love for Obi-Wan, and now, there was no Jedi Order for him to leave.  
But he still had a job to do. He still had to train Holto, and to protect Luke, and allowing himself to be with Blaca could put all of that in jeopardy. But he also felt as if he and Blaca were meant to be together. Indecision tore at him as he could sense Blaca’s growing anxiety.  
Then he let himself go.  
He pulled Blaca into the most passionate kiss of his life. He had never even kissed Satine like this, and it was as if his lips wanted to make up for everything they had missed over the course of his life.  
As Obi-Wan broke the kiss, he whispered, “There’s something you should know about me, but you cannot tell anyone, not even Holto.”  
“What is it, Ben?” whispered Blaca.  
“My real name,” said Obi-Wan, “is Obi-Wan Kenobi.”  
Two months later, Obi-Wan and Blaca were married in the nearest town, and that night, they consummated their marriage.


	5. The Repetition of an Unfortunate Pattern

Obi-Wan had thought that he could never be happy again.  
Now, he had a wife who loved him dearly, a stepson who was continuing to improve in the Jedi Arts, and a home that was far enough away from the Lars homestead to make the Larses happy while still being close enough that he would be able to sense if Luke was in trouble.  
But it came to an end all too soon.  
Obi-Wan and Blaca had not even been married for a month yet when the Tusken Raiders attacked their farm.  
Obi-Wan was asleep in his bed, with his arms wrapped around Blaca, when he heard the unmistakable cries of the Sand People and the sounds of equipment being destroyed.  
Right away, Obi-Wan jumped out of bed, discretely grabbed his lightsaber, and rushed right to the door, followed by Blaca.  
A moment later, Holto was there too.  
There were about thirty Tusken Raiders, and they were busily smashing everything they could see.  
“What should we do?” whispered Blaca.  
Suddenly, a large rock lifted off the ground and hit one of the Tusken Raiders right on the head, knocking him to the ground.  
That got the others’ attention.  
“Now you’ve done it, Holto!” said Obi-Wan, activating his lightsaber.  
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?!” said Holto. “I got one!”  
The Sand People rushed towards the door.  
“Holto,” said Obi-Wan, “take your mother back inside and hide. I’ll deal with this!”  
But instead, Holto rushed out to meet the Sand People.  
“No, Holto, No!” shouted Obi-Wan.  
Then Holto activated Anakin’s lightsaber. (How had he gotten that?! Obi-Wan thought that he had hidden it well!)  
“No!” Obi-Wan shouted again as Holto cut down one of the Sand People. “Holto! We don’t want to kill them! We just want to make them stop!”  
But Holto kept slashing at the Sand People.  
Then Obi-Wan jumped into the fray, focusing on disarming the attackers and trying not to kill them.  
Then, suddenly, Obi-Wan felt a terrible disturbance in the Force, and less than a second later, he heard Blaca’s anguished scream.  
He turned, and what he saw sickened him.  
Holto had been impaled on one of the Tusken Raiders’ long staffs.  
The Tusken Raider pulled his weapon from Holto’s chest, and Holto fell to the ground.  
He was dead.  
Obi-Wan felt a fury that he had not known since the day that Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon.  
Now, Obi-Wan was slashing wildly at the attackers, killing most of them and maiming the rest. Finally, the few who were still alive ran off into the night, shouting as they fled.  
Obi-Wan was tempted to chase them, but at that moment, his fury left him, and he sank to his knees.  
The whole fight had lasted less than a minute.  
Obi-Wan deactivated his lightsaber, got up, turned around, and saw Blaca clinging to the body of her son, sobbing loudly. There was blood everywhere.  
Yet another person that Obi-Wan loved had died right in front of him.  
Blaca looked up and glared at Obi-Wan.  
“This is all your fault!” she shouted.  
Obi-Wan could not argue with her.  
Later, Obi-Wan piled the corpses of their attackers and burned them.  
Then, he set to work making a pyre on which to burn Holto, as was the custom of the Jedi, but apparently, burning dead loved ones was strongly against the customs of Oyotom, so instead, he dug a grave, and there, Holto was reverently buried. His mother had even put him back into the princely garments which he had been wearing when they’d first arrived on Tatooine.  
Obi-Wan used his lightsaber to carve Holto’s name into a stone to mark the grave.  
Blaca was inconsolable.  
That night, Obi-Wan could not even get her to come into the house. She just wanted to sit there by Holto’s grave and keep vigil.  
“Will you at least let me sit with you?” said Obi-Wan. “It’s dangerous out here at night.”  
“Just leave me alone!” cried Blaca. “I don’t want you here with me right now!”  
So, Obi-Wan had to content himself with keeping an eye on her from inside the house.  
All night he sat there, watching her, as she sat by Holto’s grave. He did not want to fall asleep, because now, there was a new nightmare waiting to plague him.  
However, just as the suns were about to come up, Obi-Wan fell asleep, and just as he thought, his sleep was plagued with nightmares.  
There were the nightmares that he was expecting, of course. There was the sickening sound of a red lightsaber piercing flesh, the blood and screams from the delivery room as he held Padme’s hand, his entire final fight with Anakin which ended with Anakin bursting into flame, and now there was the death of his stepson.  
But there was another nightmare which Obi-Wan had not expected.  
He was a small child on the planet Stewjon, in the arms of his mother.  
He had never been to his homeworld, and he had never known his mother, but somehow, he just knew where he was, and that it was her that he was with.  
Everything around him was chaos. There was some kind of fight going on, and his mother was frantically trying to escape from it with him in her arms.  
Then, suddenly, his mother was gunned down, dropping him as she fell, and like any toddler, Obi-Wan rushed to her side and begged her to get up.  
Suddenly, he was surrounded by Jedi, and after they neutralized the shooters, one of them scooped Obi-Wan up and took him to the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.  
When Obi-Wan woke up, he tried to make sense of what he had seen. After all, he had no idea how he had come to the Jedi Temple or even whether his biological parents were alive or dead. What had even triggered this particular nightmare?  
Then he remembered that Holto was dead.  
As the pain of that loss hit him all over again, he looked outside to where Blaca had been kneeling by Holto’s grave…  
…But she was not there.  
Obi-Wan looked all over the house and called to her again and again.  
Finally, he found a holographic recording on the kitchen counter. He turned it on, and there was Blaca, her face stained with tears.  
“Ben,” she said, “by the time you see this, I will be gone. I simply cannot stay in the place where I lost my son. This farm is too full of memories. I’m leaving Tatooine, and I will not be coming back. If what you say is true, and the Sith really have enslaved the galaxy, then I must do something to stop them. I don’t know what I can do, but from now on, saving my planet is my only reason for living, and I don’t want you to follow me. I saw how fierce and full of rage you became when Holto died, and I never would have married you if I had known you were capable of such ferocity. I suggest you try to forget me and go back to whatever it was that brought you to Tatooine in the first place. Goodbye forever.”  
The hologram started to repeat its message, but Obi-Wan shut it off.  
Obi-Wan then picked up Anakin’s lightsaber. If only he hadn’t brought it, then this whole tragedy might have been averted. But he felt an irrational need to keep it with him at all times. After all, he didn’t want someone to steal it before he could give it to Luke. Also, it was the only bit of Anakin he had left.  
Was he doomed to fail everyone he loved?!  
Losing himself to fury hadn’t brought Holto back, and it had cost him his relationship with his wife and several Tusken Raiders their lives. He remembered the last time he had lost himself to fury. It was when Darth Maul had killed Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan had attacked Darth Maul with a ferocity he had never thought himself capable of before, and his anger and rage had not only not brought Qui-Gon back, but it had nearly gotten him killed and had cost him his favourite lightsaber. He remembered how it had only been after letting go of his anger and returning to a state of inner peace that he had been able to regain his focus, get himself out of that hole, summon Qui-Gon’s lightsaber, and defeat Darth Maul.  
Now, he really wished that he had been killed in that duel.  
But then, who would be here to protect Luke?  
For that matter, would Luke and Leia even exist at all?  
“Obi-Wan,” came Qui-Gon’s voice, “remember, nothing happens by accident.”  
“But Master,” said Obi-Wan, “I failed on my mission, and now, a boy who just celebrated his sixteenth birthday is dead! I tried to train him so that he could save the galaxy someday, which is what I thought you wanted, but all that happened was that I got attached to him and then watched him die! Why did you send me here?!”  
“Remember,” said Qui-Gon again, “nothing happens by accident.”  
“But Master!” said Obi-Wan. “What am I supposed to do now?!”  
But Qui-Gon would say nothing more.  
Obi-Wan then realized that he had no further reason to stay. The woman he loved had left him (and for good reason), and his Padawan/stepson was dead. He packed up the few things that he had brought with him and left the farm without further delay. He knew that he had been away from Luke for far too long, and that it was time he resumed the mission on which he had come to Tatooine in the first place.  
Losing Holto had given Obi-Wan a whole new determination to protect Luke.  
But surely that determination should not have been worth a sixteen-year-old boy losing his life and a mother losing her only child.  
He only hoped that he could quickly forget the pain that this whole misadventure had caused him, even though he doubted that these new wounds would heal anytime soon.  
He consoled himself with the fact that at least Blaca would not die in front of him, like everyone else he had ever loved.  
That night, as he walked away, Obi-Wan could hear Tusken Raiders, even more than before, tearing away at the farm. Soon, it would be as if that farm never existed.  
For the rest of his days, Obi-Wan would wonder why he had been sent there.  
It would not be until after his death, many years later, that he would learn that he and Blaca had conceived a child on their wedding night.


	6. A Few Decades Later

Jadma was from everywhere and nowhere.  
In her thirty years of life, she felt like she had seen and done it all.  
Her earliest memories were of the planet Dantooine, where she had lived with a group of rebels until she was five years old.  
She barely remembered her mother. She had only been two when her mother died.  
What she did remember was that her mother’s name had been Blaca, and that she’d been very beautiful, kind, but sad.  
She knew nothing of her father.  
She had asked many times what had happened to her mother, and all anyone seemed to know was that her mother had been shot down and crashed on a planet called Tatooine, and, even after they finally found the wreckage of her ship, with her blood splattered all over the cockpit, her body was not in it. Jadma had argued that, in that case, her mother must have survived and crawled out, looking for help, but everyone had said that there would not have been another soul around for miles, so she would have bled out before finding anyone, and they would have found her body not far from where she had crashed.  
After her mother’s death, Jadma had continued to live with the rebels.  
She’d had a hard time finding permanent caretakers. One day, two elderly rebels had promised to take care of her, but the next day, both of them had been killed.  
By far, her longest-lasting caretaker had been an unfriendly man who was known by the other rebels as Scruffy. Nobody had ever seemed to know his real name.  
Jadma had begged and pleaded many times to be allowed to go with the rebels on one of their missions. She’d thought that, if she went, then maybe she could find out what had happened to her mother. Besides, she’d wanted to be brave, just like the men and women who looked after her. But they always insisted that it was too dangerous.  
Finally, at the age of five, Jadma had decided to take matters into her own hands.  
She’d stowed away aboard Scruffy’s ship, intent on being part of the action whether the other rebels liked it or not.  
Luckily, Scruffy’s ship had been big enough for her to hide in without being noticed.  
But then, because of one careless wrong decision, everything had changed.  
In the middle of a fight, Jadma had been beginning to feel very spacesick when she popped up to see what was happening. Scruffy had been so shocked to see her that he had been momentarily distracted, and in that moment, they’d been shot down.  
They’d crash-landed into a patch of quicksand on a planet called Jakku.  
Jadma had gotten out of the ship easily enough, but Scruffy had been stuck.  
“Jadma, help me!” he’d called.  
Jadma had tried to pull him free, but she had only been five years old at the time and thin as a rake.  
That had been the moment when Jadma had discovered her powers.  
Even though she should not have been physically strong enough to pull a relatively overweight grown man out of a sinking ship, in that moment, she had felt the Force flowing through her, and Scruffy was pulled to safety just as the ship sank from under him.  
That had been the beginning of Jadma’s ten-year stay on Jakku.  
Day after day, Jadma and Scruffy had waited for rescue, but it had soon become clear that nobody was coming to save them.  
Jakku had been a rough place to live, especially for a child, but Jadma and Scruffy had quickly learned to survive. Scruffy had been good at fending off robbers, and he had soon taught Jadma how to fight as well. He had protected her, but he had also beaten her, claiming that it was going to toughen her up.  
In all of those ten years, Jadma’s only pleasure had come from developing her powers, but Scruffy had beaten her whenever he’d caught her practicing her telekinesis, claiming that if word ever got to the Emperor about Jadma’s powers, then she would be found by Darth Vader and killed, or worse, taken away and forced to serve him.  
At the time, Jadma hadn’t seen what would be so bad about that.  
Jadma had been fifteen when she had finally escaped from Jakku.  
Some pirates had come by, and Jadma had been able to barter passage off Jakku, but Scruffy had opted to stay behind.  
To this day, Jadma still had no idea why.  
Jadma had opted to join the pirates, who had said that a girl with her fighting skills and stealth would surely come in handy. Unfortunately, on her very first job with them, she had been caught by law enforcement and sentenced to work on a garbage freighter.  
That had been tedious work.  
She had seen some beautiful planets in her months on that freighter, such as Naboo, Mandalore, and Oyotom, but she had also seen some terrible things, such as the destruction of Alderaan and the oppression of countless other planets.  
Finally, one day, she had decided that she had to escape.  
As the garbage freighter had set down on some garbage planet whose name Jadma could no longer remember, she had walked right up to her guards and, using the Force, said: “You will let me walk away from here and never look for me again!”  
At first her guards had simply advanced on her, but she had said again: “You will let me walk away from here and never look for me again!”  
Still they had advanced on her, but she had said again, as forcefully as she could: “You will let me walk away from here and never look for me again!”  
Finally, her guards had relented and let her go.  
Then she’d walked away from that ship as confident as she had ever felt, and watched as it blasted off without her.  
She had been sixteen years old.  
As she’d set off to try to find something that she could use to get off that planet, she’d wondered why, of all the planets in the galaxy, the Force had guided her into choosing to escape onto that one.  
Then she’d felt the Force calling her to a particular pile of garbage.  
As she’d started to root through the garbage pile, at first, she had been faintly horrified by what she had found.  
They’d looked like the skeletal remains of what had once been humanoid legs.  
But what had happened to the rest of the skeleton, and why would someone throw a pair of legs into the garbage anyway?  
But that garbage pile had yielded an unexpected treasure.  
That day, she had found not one, but two lightsabers, and they had both still been in perfect working order!  
Even now, these were still her two favourite weapons.  
The first one she’d found was red. At first, she’d thought that it was damaged, because it almost looked like the bottom of the hilt had been cut off by another lightsaber. But, when she’d activated it, she’d seen that there was not a single thing wrong with it…  
…Except that, even now, she could sense a dark energy coming from it.  
It was almost as if the lightsaber’s previous owner had known nothing but anger and hatred, and honestly, those passionately dark emotions were a tad contagious.  
But it was the second lightsaber that had proven to be truly interesting.  
As soon as she’d activated the brilliant blue lightsaber, she’d felt a peace that she had not known since before her mother died.  
Then, she’d heard an unfamiliar male voice from somewhere within the Force, and it had shouted, as if it had gotten the surprise of its life:  
“I have a daughter!”  
Jadma had wondered if her father had truly spoken to her.  
“Father?” she had said tentatively.  
“Daughter,” the voice had said gently, “you must learn the ways of the Force. But I cannot help you yet. You must find one who can.”  
“But where?! Who?!” Jadma had cried.  
But the voice had said nothing more.  
It had taken Jadma days to find a way off that garbage planet, but in that time, she had spent hours each day practicing with the lightsabers.  
She had found that, when she used only the red one, she felt the passionate side of the Force, which made her reckless. She had also found that, when she used only the blue one, she felt peace and a reluctance to fight.  
She had found pretty quickly that she got the perfect balance between passion and peace when she used both lightsabers simultaneously, one in each hand, and that was how she continued to do it to this day.  
Eventually, in her daily rummaging through the garbage piles, the Force had guided her to another lightsaber, but this one had been broken beyond repair. She’d had no idea what colour it had even been originally, or what kind of person had owned it. But the crystal inside had been intact, so she’d figured that it would have to be good for something.  
As it had turned out, she had been right.  
One day, as she’d practiced with her lightsabers, a small ship had landed nearby.  
She’d approached the ship with caution, her lightsabers ready.  
Then the pilot had stepped out of his ship.  
Jadma had been unable to help noticing that he was a very handsome young man.  
“Hello!” he’d said. “And who’s side are you on? Are you one of the rebels?”  
“Who wants to know?!” Jadma had said.  
“My name is Belra Dameron,” the young man had said, “and I’m a rebel pilot, but my ship sustained some damage in that last fight, and I was forced to land here and make repairs.”  
Jadma had been able to sense his honesty, and so she’d deactivated her lightsabers.  
“My name is Jadma,” she had said, “and I used to live with the rebels on Dantooine. My mother was one of the rebels. But I’ve been out of the fight for years, not that I was ever really in it to begin with. I was only little when I got separated from them.”  
“Did you say Dantooine?” Belra had asked. “We haven’t been there in a long time! We were on Yavin Four for a while, and honestly, it’s a shame we had to leave. That place is beautiful! But I shouldn’t say any more. Anyway, you seem busy, so I’ll just make the necessary repairs to my ship, and then I’ll get out of your hair.”  
“Wait!” Jadma had said, hastily producing the crystal. “If you give me a lift off this planet, I’ll give you this crystal! It used to be inside a lightsaber!”  
Belra had taken the crystal, saying, “If what you say is true, then this is a kyber crystal! These fetch a high price on the black market… Not that I would know anything about that, of course! Where did you get this?”  
Ordinarily, Jadma would have told him a lie about having found it by accident, but she had sensed that she could trust him, so she’d told him the truth.  
“You can find kyber crystals using the Force?!” Belra had answered. “Alright! I’ll give you a ride, as soon as I finish repairing my ship.”  
Jadma had helped him repair his ship, and at her request, he had taken her to Tatooine, to the spot where her mother had supposedly crash-landed.  
There had still been a gouge in the landscape where the ship had crash-landed, but no sign of the ship itself.  
Looking back now, Jadma realized that the Jawas must have torn it apart and sold it piece by piece.  
However, despite this lack of a ship, Jadma had found an important answer anyway.  
It had turned out that her mother really had died in the crash.  
This answer had come upon Jadma finding a grave.  
The words on the tombstone read: “Blaca Kenobi, Beloved Wife.”  
As Jadma had touched the tombstone, she’d had a vision of what had happened.  
She had seen a man with greying hair and strange robes pulling her bloodied mother from the smoking wreckage of the ship and holding her as she died.  
Could this man have been her father?  
Why had he been all alone on Tatooine, instead of on Dantooine with them?  
Aside from that, the odds against her mother crash-landing near her father had to have been astronomical. If this was the case, then this was an astonishing coincidence.  
“Remember,” the unfamiliar male voice had said to her, “nothing happens by accident.”  
Kenobi… Jadma had liked the sound of that name, and she had had no last name that she’d known of up until that point, and since, for all she’d known, that was probably her real last name anyway, she’d decided to use it.  
Not far away, she’d found a house, and the Force told her that this house had belonged to the man that she had seen in her vision.  
However, at this point, it had looked like it had been deserted for some time.  
Jadma had wondered if she would ever meet her father face-to-face.  
“Well,” she’d said to Belra later, “I suppose you’ll be wanting to rejoin the rebels now.”  
“Actually,” Belra had said, “I know that it would mean a lot to the rebellion if you could help me find more kyber crystals. They would go a long way towards helping us defeat the Empire. Most of the ones that were on Jedha are gone now, so…”  
“But don’t you need to get back to the frontlines?” Jadma had asked.  
“My cousin, Kes, can handle it, and I think he’d be a lot happier not having me around!” Belra had said. “Besides, I think I would be of more value to them by finding them kyber crystals than flying a ship on some suicide mission.”  
And that was how Jadma and Belra had teamed up and become kyber crystal smugglers.  
Over the next few years, Belra had taught Jadma how to fly a starship, and Jadma had found numerous crystals for Belra, but every time she’d found an intact and functional lightsaber, that had turned into an argument. Jadma had become a compulsive lightsaber collector, and she had always been reluctant to even part with the ones with unstable, fiery blades. Belra had always let her keep the ones powered by electrons or by synthetic crystals, but the ones powered by real kyber crystals had always resulted in them going to bed angry.  
Soon, Jadma had collected lightsabers in all the colours of the rainbow.  
Blue was the most common colour in her collection, with green a close second. But she also had lightsabers in purple, yellow, orange, red, white, grey, and even black. She even had lightsabers that were shorter or longer than average.  
“Belra,” she’d asked one day, “why do all of the red lightsabers have so much dark energy attached to them?”  
“Because,” Belra had answered, “red is the only colour that kyber crystals don’t come in naturally. They’re only used by Dark Jedi and Sith, and they get their red colour from evil Force-wielders infusing them with their dark emotions. That’s why I’m kind of surprised that you use one. We’ve been together for years now, and you have never seemed evil to me.”  
“Well,” Jadma had said, “when I use it together with the blue one, I just feel more balanced. When I only use one, I feel too much… one way or the other. You know what I mean?”  
Then things had taken yet another turn for the worse one day when Belra had gotten a tad too ambitious.  
“They say that there’s a wealth of kyber crystals stashed away in Darth Vader’s castle on Mustafar,” Belra had said, “and we’re going after it!”  
“Belra!” Jadma had exclaimed. “I thought you wanted to avoid suicide missions!”  
“Yes,” Belra had answered, “but just think if we were the ones to deprive the Empire of…”  
“Even if Darth Vader wasn’t the most dangerous being in the galaxy, which he is,” Jadma had argued, “I’m not going to any more volcanic moons! Do you remember what happened when we went to Diark?!”  
“Are you still upset about us almost getting eaten by that ridda dragon?!” Belra had exclaimed. “I got us out of there, didn’t I?! Plus, we got what we went there for! Besides, there are no ridda dragons on Mustafar!”  
“No,” Jadma had retorted, “just a dangerous Sith Lord!”  
“Exactly!” Belra had said. “He doesn’t scare me! And if we get his crystals, we’ll deprive the Empire of so much of its power, and we’ll have so much money to bring back to the rebellion! Could you imagine if they won this war because of us?! Now, let’s go!”  
Upon landing on Mustafar, they had seen that Darth Vader’s shuttle was not there, so they’d taken that to mean that he was not in his castle.  
However, Jadma had been able to feel danger all around them.  
They’d thought that they were safe once they had gotten past all of the alarms and booby traps, but no sooner had they thought this then Jadma had suddenly become unable to breathe.  
She’d turned around and found herself face-to-face with the Dark Lord himself!  
Darth Vader had ignited his lightsaber and killed Belra right there and then.  
Then he’d grabbed Jadma by the throat and lifted her clear off the ground.  
“Why do you dare to invade my castle?!” he’d demanded.  
Then, when Jadma had not answered right away, Darth Vader had said: “The Force is strong with you.”  
“Are you going to kill me?” Jadma had managed to croak out.  
“No,” Darth Vader had answered after a pause, “I have a better idea.”  
At this point, he’d set Jadma down, leaving her coughing and gasping for air.  
“From now on,” Darth Vader had continued, “you shall serve as my apprentice and my personal assassin. If you agree, I will make you rich and teach you how to make the most of your powers. If you refuse, however, I will kill you and destroy your home planet.”  
“I don’t even have a home planet!” Jadma had answered. “Besides, what makes you think I would willingly serve the monster who just killed my boyfriend in front of me?!”  
Then Jadma had felt Darth Vader using the Force to bore into her mind.  
“I see,” he’d said, “a desert planet… not Tatooine… Jakku! So, you are from Jakku, and you still have family there!”  
Jadma had thought about the horrible dust ball on which she had grown up, and about the man who had beaten her, and about the people who had tried to rob her…  
And yet, had that planet and all of the people on it truly deserved to be destroyed?  
She had searched her feelings and found that she could not allow that to happen.  
“Fine!” she’d said. “I’ll cooperate!”  
The next several months had been a nightmare.  
Jadma liked to think that she could get used to anything, but she knew that she would never have been able to get used to this.  
In that time, she’d gone wherever Darth Vader had told her to go, done whatever he’d told her to do…  
…Killed whoever he’d told her to kill.  
But in that time, he’d taught her how to strangle people with the Force, extract information from people’s brains, and even how to conjure Force lightning, which was something that he had never been able to do himself. He’d even allowed her to keep her collection of lightsabers.  
After all, an assassin needed weapons.  
However, he had confiscated her kyber crystals.  
Then, one day, Jadma’s opportunity to escape had finally come.  
Darth Vader had come back to his castle distracted, with a huge amount of conflict storming within his mind.  
She’d felt that she could kill him right here and now.  
So, she’d ignited her lightsabers.  
She’d caught him off guard, but not by enough.  
At the last second, he’d ignited his lightsaber and blocked her attack.  
What followed had been a furious fight.  
Jadma had thought for sure that she was finished when Darth Vader had severed her left arm right between the biceps, but she had not given into the shock, and she’d managed a direct hit right to his chest plate.  
She’d scooped up the lightsaber that she had dropped and left Darth Vader suffocating on the floor.  
She’d managed to get to the landing strip without getting shot, stolen his shuttle, and flown away from Mustafar as fast as the shuttle would go.  
However, upon coming out of hyperspace, she had been immediately attacked.  
She’d opened a channel to her attacker and explained her situation, and then her attacker, General Crix Madine, had brought her to the Rebel Alliance.  
On board one of their more massive ships, her injuries had been treated and she had been given a new arm that felt just like the old one.  
She’d also been given ample praise for bringing the Rebel Alliance an asset as valuable as an Imperial shuttle.  
Not long after that, she had been given an X-wing, and she had joined in the final attack on the new Death Star.  
After the destruction of the Death Star and the collapse of the Empire, Jadma had decided to try settling down on the planet Oyotom, which was, in her opinion, the most beautiful and idyllic planet in the whole galaxy.  
Not long after arriving there, Jadma had begun to realize that, maybe, she had roots there. After all, she had gone her whole life without meeting another girl named Jadma, and yet, on this planet, Jadma was a fairly common girls’ name.  
She’d wondered often what her boyfriend would have thought of the fact that Belra was a name on this planet too, but it was a girls’ name.  
Well, it must have been a boys’ name on whatever planet he had come from.  
Looking back now, Jadma was surprised at how quickly she had gotten over Belra’s death.  
While on Oyotom, Jadma had walked past what must have once been a splendid tile mosaic, but had since been heavily graffitied.  
On one of the less graffitied parts of the mosaic had been of a fierce-looking warrior of a princess who looked just like Jadma, right down to the bright red hair cut right around the chin and the eyes like frozen ice.  
Oddly enough, this princess had apparently also been named Jadma.  
Jadma wished that she had been able to see more of the mosaic.  
She’d had a quiet life on Oyotom for a while. She had even had a house with a garden full of riddas, which had always been her favourite flower.  
However, then she had gotten careless.  
She had been in her living room, using her telekinesis to rearrange her lightsaber collection, when she’d heard a scream from outside.  
Opening the door, she had seen her neighbour pointing at her house and screaming.  
“Force-wielder!” the neighbour had screamed. “Jadma Kenobi is a Force-wielder! I saw her through the window! She was using telekinesis! Get her!”  
Jadma had barely escaped from Oyotom.  
After that, she had gotten a job as a miner on Bespin.  
Not much interesting had happened to her there.  
One day, while flying through the gas layers, she had found what looked like the mummified remains of a human hand. That had been disgusting!  
Then, one fine day, she had found a lightsaber.  
The first time she had touched this lightsaber, she had felt a thousand emotions at once. It had been like an intensified version of holding both of her main lightsabers at the same time.  
She had felt that this lightsaber had done great things, and that it still had many great things yet to do.  
This lightsaber was now the jewel of her collection.  
After a few years of working as a miner, Jadma had begun to crave excitement again, and she’d quit her job and got a new one in law enforcement.  
She had to admit that the dark skills that had been given to her by Darth Vader had come in handy in that job, even though she could now only use Force lightning with her right hand, her left one being mechanical. But she had never used these abilities unless she had been given no other choice.  
After all, she did not like to hurt people unnecessarily.  
One memorable pursuit had taken her to Dagobah.  
She had chased a criminal into a cave that, even before going in, she had sensed was strong with the Dark Side.  
While in there, she had had a terrifying vision.  
A tall, dark, masked figure, not unlike Darth Vader, had stepped out of the shadows and ignited one of the strangest-looking lightsabers that Jadma had ever seen.  
Jadma had ignited her own lightsabers in anticipation of his attack, but he had gone right through her, like a ghost.  
She’d turned around and seen the dark figure heading straight for an unfamiliar girl…  
…Who happened to have been holding Jadma’s most prized lightsaber.  
As the dark figure’s fiery red blade had clashed with the girl’s blue one, the blue colour had bled away and turned red, and the girl had transformed into another dark and shadowy figure.  
After Jadma had caught her criminal, she’d made a promise to herself that she would never go to Dagobah again.  
Another adventure had taken her to the planet Stewjon, where the surname Kenobi had apparently come from.  
She’d tried to find out if she had any family on this planet. Unfortunately, nobody had been able to tell her anything.  
Her most recent adventure in law enforcement had taken her to a cantina on Takodana, and it had been this that had set her on her current path.  
In this cantina, she had met Maz Kanata, who had had a curious way of knowing everything about her.  
“So, Jadma Kenobi,” she had said, “you have not taken your father’s advice. You have also been using both the Light Side and the Dark Side of the Force. If you wish to know more about the Force, you should seek out Luke Skywalker. He is teaching a group of Force-sensitive beings how to properly use their powers and trying to restore the Jedi Order.”  
Jadma had heard about Luke Skywalker. She had never actually seen him, but she had heard that he had been one of the most important people in the Rebel Alliance.  
As soon as she’d caught her criminal, she’d found out what planet Luke was on, and she’d set out right away to find him.  
Everything that she had been through in the last thirty years had led to her being here, now, on the slope of this mountain, walking up to what she could sense would be the most important thing of her life.


	7. Luke and Ben

As Jadma walked up the mountain, she could hear children playing. One little boy, who couldn’t have been more than nine or ten, suddenly darted out onto the path. He had dark hair, dark eyes, and dark clothes, but he had the cutest smile that Jadma had ever seen.  
Jadma’s first impression was that this little boy was the most adorable child that she had ever seen in her life.  
However, she could also sense a terrible darkness deep within the child.  
It was likely that the child was currently unaware of his own inner darkness, but she knew that it was only a matter of time before something terrible happened to bring it to the surface.  
“Hi!” the boy said brightly. “My name is Ben Solo! What’s yours?”  
Just then, his friends, who had apparently been chasing him, jumped out onto the path.  
They stopped short when they saw Jadma, just as he had.  
“Wow!” said one little girl. “Are those real lightsabers?”  
“Yep!” said Jadma. “I’ve got a whole collection of them!”  
“Wow!” breathed all of the children in unison.  
“My name is Jadma Kenobi,” said Jadma, “and I’m looking for Luke Skywalker. Do any of you know where he is?”  
“I do!” said Ben. “He’s my uncle! He’s just up here! Come on! I’ll show you!”  
Then Ben grabbed Jadma’s wrist and towed her the rest of the way up the mountain.  
“Uncle Luke! Uncle Luke!” called Ben as they got to the top of the mountain. “I think you have a new student! She’s got real lightsabers, and she’s really pretty!”  
The man at the top of the mountain, Luke Skywalker, turned around, and when his bright blue eyes met Jadma’s icy ones, it was love at first sight.  
Jadma knew now that she’d been meant to come here to find Luke and be with him forever.  
Not only that, she could sense, at least she hoped that she was sensing and not just imagining, that he felt the same way about her.  
“Hello…” Luke said, sounding uneasy. “My name is Luke Skywalker.”  
“Hello…” said Jadma, feeling just as uneasy. “My name is Jadma Kenobi.”  
“Kenobi?” said Luke. “Are you related to Obi-Wan Kenobi?”  
“Well,” said Jadma, “I’m afraid I wouldn’t know. You see, I’m an orphan, and I couldn’t even tell you what planet I come from.”  
And it was true. After all, what could she say if he had asked her? Dantooine? Jakku? Tatooine? Oyotom? Stewjon?  
“Have you come here to join my class and learn the ways of the Force?” asked Luke.  
Jadma nodded eagerly.  
At that moment, Ben, who was still holding onto Jadma’s wrist, got really excited and threw his arms around her.  
“I’m so glad you’re staying!” said Ben.  
Jadma wondered how such a sweet little boy could have so much darkness buried deep within his heart.  
Later, over a cup of tea of Luke’s own concoction, Luke and Jadma told each other the stories of their lives.  
Jadma told Luke about Dantooine, about Jakku, about getting arrested, about finding her lightsabers, about Belra, about her discovery on Tatooine, about being forced to serve Darth Vader, about losing her left arm, about her part in the final battle, about Oyotom, and about the law enforcement job that had led to her coming here.  
“You must be Obi-Wan’s daughter!” said Luke. “But he never mentioned a daughter, and he never struck me as the sort of man who would have a child and be unaware of her existence. Also, I’m sorry about what Vader put you through. If it helps, he reformed and turned back to the Light Side before he died.”  
Jadma found little comfort in this.  
Luke then told Jadma about growing up on Tatooine, about Obi-Wan Kenobi, about finding C-3PO and R2-D2, about joining up with Han Solo and Chewbacca to rescue Princess Leia of Alderaan, about joining the Rebel Alliance and destroying the first Death Star, about training to become a Jedi, about making the horrible discovery that Darth Vader was his father, about turning his father back to the Light Side moments before the second Death Star was destroyed, and about his determination to pass on what he had learned about the Force and being a Jedi.  
“I can’t believe you’re Darth Vader’s son!” said Jadma. “I also can’t believe you’re defending all of the evil that he did over the course of his life!”  
“I’m not defending his evil deeds!” said Luke. “Before he was Darth Vader, he was a good man and a Jedi named Anakin Skywalker, and he was your father’s best friend!”  
“We don’t even know for sure that Obi-Wan Kenobi is my real father!” said Jadma. “Besides, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader tried to kill each other, didn’t they?!”  
“Also,” said Luke, “my father brought balance to the Force when he killed Emperor Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious.”  
“I don’t understand!” said Jadma. “How could killing one man bring balance to the Force?”  
“Well, however it happened,” said Luke, “my father, Anakin Skywalker, was prophesized to bring balance to the Force, and when he died, there was balance. I hope to train more Jedi in order to keep that balance, and if you’re willing, I want you to be one of them.”  
That night, Jadma couldn’t sleep.  
Aside from her own horrible experience with Darth Vader, she had heard nothing but bad things about him. He had been a slayer of Jedi, a murderer of children, and a destroyer of planets.  
Then again, she had heard nothing but good things about the war hero known as General Anakin Skywalker; about his bravery, his goodness, his loyalty, and his kindness.  
Even though she had always known intellectually that they were the same person, somehow, she had never really put two and two together.  
Also, how could there be balance in the Force if there were good Force-wielders, but no evil ones? After all, there could be no good without evil, and no evil without good…  
…Not that she would ever want evil to flourish, of course.  
And, up until she’d met Darth Vader, she hadn’t even known that the Force had a Light Side and a Dark Side. She had only ever thought of the whole thing as the Force. She had always been at her best when she embraced both peace and passion.  
That’s when it hit her.  
Anakin Skywalker had spent the first half of his life serving the Light Side of the Force, at the end of which he had destroyed the Jedi, and he had spent the second half of his life serving the Dark Side of the Force, at the end of which he had destroyed the Sith, including himself.  
That was how he had brought balance to the Force!


	8. Dubious Lessons

The next morning, Jadma, Ben, and the other students gathered on the side of the mountain for lessons.  
“Students,” said Luke, “I have a special surprise for you today. I have a box of training sabers, and today, we’re going to learn lightsaber technique.”  
The children all clamoured excitedly around the box.  
“Hey! No shoving!” said Luke. “Remember, Jedi don’t knock each other to the ground!”  
“I want a green one, just like Uncle Luke!” said Ben.  
“Aren’t you going to come and get a training saber, Jadma?” asked Luke.  
“She’s got real ones!” said one of the other children.  
Jadma drew her lightsabers and ignited them. The children all gasped in amazement.  
“Hey! One of them is red!” shouted another child. “I thought only bad guys used red ones!”  
“Actually,” said Jadma, “I find I’m at my best when I use both the red one and the blue one at the same time.”  
“Well, for today,” said Luke, “I ask that you choose a training saber. We’re going to be sparring today, and I wouldn’t want you to accidentally hurt one of the children.”  
“I’d be careful!” said Jadma. Then she took a good look at sweet young Ben and said, “But I see your point.”  
Jadma deactivated her lightsabers and walked up to the box. There were two training sabers left, and she picked up both of them. One of them was blue, and the other was green.  
“Now, Jadma,” said Luke, “since you have experience in lightsaber combat, would you care to help me demonstrate?”  
Luke readied his own training saber, and Jadma attacked him with ferocity. Luke easily parried her attack.  
“Lesson number one,” said Luke, “is that the Jedi use the Force for knowledge and defense, never to attack. Always remember, there is no passion. There is only peace.”  
After a long and exhausting day of sparring, Jadma and Luke retired to his room for a private conversation.  
“You know,” said Jadma, “you’re wrong about passion. In my experience, I’ve always been at my best using a combination of passion and peace.”  
“Passion leads to the Dark Side!” said Luke. “It led my father to the Dark Side, along with countless others!”  
“It hasn’t led me to the Dark Side!” said Jadma. “In fact, I’m not so sure there is a Dark Side, or a Light Side, for that matter! I think that there is only the Force! All I know is that I need both in order to stay balanced, and I would never intentionally hurt anyone! Besides, you’re only thinking of emotions like anger and hatred. There are good passionate emotions too.”  
Then she kissed him.  
At first, she was worried that maybe she had overstepped, but then, Luke was kissing her back. He even pulled her in closer and deepened the kiss.  
As Luke broke the kiss, he shouted, “Ben! Stop spying on us!”  
At that moment, Jadma sensed Ben’s disappointment and embarrassment at getting caught.  
She could also sense Luke beating himself up over his own emotions.  
“I don’t want to be in love with you, Jadma,” said Luke, “but I just can’t help it! You are the most amazing woman I have ever met.”  
That was the first night they spent together.  
The next day, Luke produced a modified droid for the class.  
“Students,” said Luke, “today, we’re going to pretend that this droid is a bounty hunter looking to assassinate an important political leader. We’re going to practice subduing it without using lightsabers.”  
Then he set the droid running up the path.  
One by one, the students tried to tackle it to the ground.  
Ben used his telekinesis to smash it against a rock.  
“Ben! We talked about this!” said Luke.  
“Sorry!” said Ben. “But at least I didn’t break it this time!”  
Next, it was Jadma’s turn.  
As the droid started running, Jadma extended her non-prosthetic hand, thought of her horrible time in Darth Vader’s castle and everything that he had taught her, and unleashed a bolt of Force lightning on the droid. The droid, of course, collapsed immediately. A puff of smoke floated away from the back of its head.  
Jadma turned around, feeling quite pleased with herself, only to see most of the children looking shocked and terrified, Ben looking more excited than she had seen him yet, and Luke staring a thousand yards away.  
“Did I do something wrong?” asked Jadma.  
Luke started to hyperventilate.  
“Luke, are you okay?!” said Jadma.  
She could sense the panic radiating from him in waves, and since he was clearly unable to speak, Jadma decided to use the Force to find out what was wrong.  
The memories that she extracted from his mind were of being hit by Force lightning over and over and over again by none other than Emperor Palpatine, who’d clearly intended to electrocute him to death.  
Clearly, she had inadvertently triggered a horrible flashback.  
“Luke, I’m so sorry!” said Jadma. “I would never have done that if I had known what effect it would have on you! I would never hurt you intentionally!”  
Then she started using the Force to try to calm him down.  
“Never!” gasped Luke when he could breathe normally again. “Never do that again!”  
“I’m sorry!” said Jadma. “I promise, I will never use Force lightning in front of you again!”  
“Don’t ever use Force lightning again at all!” said Luke. “It’s one of the worst of the Dark Side abilities!”  
“Well, it worked, didn’t it?” said Jadma. “I used to use that ability to stop criminals, but I only ever aimed to stun them momentarily, not hurt them.”  
“And what was that other thing you did?!” said Luke. “You used the Force to get inside my head! Don’t do that anymore either! I’m not teaching anything else today! Class is adjourned! I’m going to bed!”  
A few of the children followed him, asking if he was okay, but Ben walked right up to Jadma and looked her right in the eyes.  
“Can you teach me how to do that?” he begged, giving her his sweetest smile and biggest eyes. “Pretty please?”


	9. Another New Development

For the next few months, Jadma spent her days training with the children, and in their spare time, they played games like Hide-and-Seek with the Force. Jadma had never gotten to be a child properly, so she particularly enjoyed being included in the children’s games. Sometimes, she and the children liked to watch the animals indigenous to this planet, and sometimes, the animals even let them get close enough to pet them. She also told the children stories of her adventures, and some days, she just chatted with Ben, who was still by far her favourite of the children.  
“I have the best mother anyone could want!” he was telling her. “Her name is Leia Organa Solo, and she used to be the Princess of Alderaan before my grandfather destroyed it. She’s just as Force-sensitive as my Uncle Luke, but she doesn’t really do anything with it. My father is a different, story. He’s always saying I’m going to be the death of him.”  
“Oh, don’t listen to him!” said Jadma. “I’m sure you’re a great son!”  
Ben smiled that adorable smile, pulled something out of his shirt pocket, and placed it in Jadma’s hand.  
“What’s this?” asked Jadma. “A wooden flower?”  
“It’s a ridda flower!” said Ben. “I carved it for you. I know you like them. And if you turn it over, there’s a ridda dragon on the back!”  
Jadma turned it over, and there was indeed a ridda on the back of the ridda.  
“And guess what else?” said Ben. “I’ve been practicing extracting thoughts from people’s minds! Want to see?”  
Before Jadma could answer, she could feel Ben probing into her mind.  
However, he couldn’t get very far, and all he had really done was open the door for Jadma to see into his mind.  
Of course, she hadn’t needed any special powers to see that he had a massive crush on her.  
She could never reciprocate, of course, for obvious reasons. She cared about him immensely, but it was in more of a maternal way, which was as it should have been, given that he was a child and she was about three times his age.  
Besides, she was still intent on marrying Luke someday, and she knew that, when that happened, she would become Ben’s aunt.  
When Ben stopped trying to bore into her brain, Jadma knew that he had gotten no information from it.  
“I’m sorry!” said Ben. “I don’t know why it didn’t work! It worked so well when I tried it on the other kids!”  
Naturally, this was a red flag for Jadma.  
“Uh, Ben,” said Jadma, “I don’t think your uncle Luke would like you trying out what he would call Dark Side powers on the other kids.”  
“But you said it yourself!” said Ben. “You don’t think there is a Light Side or a Dark Side, and if that’s the case, then what does it matter what powers I practice? I want to be just as powerful as my grandfather!”  
“I met your grandfather!” said Jadma. “Do you have any idea how mean he was to me?!”  
“But he taught you all of these cool powers!” said Ben. “Now I want to learn them too!”  
Jadma feared that there was no stopping what she had started.  
During her months on this planet, Jadma spent her days with the children, but she spent her nights alone with Luke in his room.  
Some nights, they meditated together; some nights, they had debates about the Force and how to use it; and some nights, they did something that they really hoped that the children would be unable to detect.  
Sometimes, they did all three in one night.  
Jadma had never been happier.  
One night, Luke said, “I think you should stop spending so much time with Ben.”  
“What?! Why?!” said Jadma. “If this is about that silly crush that he has on me…”  
“No!” said Luke. “I’ve just noticed that, when the two of you are together, the darkness grows in both of you, and I don’t want to see either of you fall to the Dark Side. As it is, you’re already walking the line. These Dark Side powers are a slippery slope. As you continue to use them, the temptation towards the darkness will just get stronger and stronger. I know that you’ve done remarkably well at resisting it so far, but I’m worried that Ben might be too weak. He might have too much of his grandfather in him. I don’t want to see him turn evil.”  
“Of course!” said Jadma. “I promise, I meant no harm! I would rather die than let such a horrible fate befall Ben!  
And Jadma meant what she’d said. She found it hard to imagine loving any child more than she loved Ben.  
The next day, Jadma was walking along the slope of the mountain when she noticed Ben staring at her. She had never seen him looking so serious.  
“What’s wrong, Ben?” asked Jadma.  
“Jadma,” said Ben, “I’ve felt a disturbance in the Force. She is going to be very important to me someday.”  
“What are you talking about?” said Jadma, growing uneasy.  
“I’ve felt her,” said Ben, “my cousin.”  
“You have a cousin?” said Jadma. “Is it one of the girls in our class?”  
Ben pointed to Jadma’s lower abdomen and said: “She’s in there.”  
Jadma’s hands flew to her lower abdomen as her head spun.  
No! How could Ben know such a thing?! But then she searched her feelings, and she knew it to be true.  
She was going to be a mother!  
Suddenly, her vision from Dagobah came back to her.  
She saw the dark figure, who she now knew to be a fully-grown Ben, advance on the girl, who she now knew to be her unborn child.  
She saw again as the fiery red lightsaber stained the blue lightsaber and turned it red.  
“Someday,” said Ben, “I’m going to be the most powerful being in the galaxy, and my cousin will help me become even more powerful!”  
Jadma now knew that Ben was going to turn evil someday, and that there was nothing that she could do to stop it.  
She also knew that she could never let him near her child.  
For the moment, all she could think to say was: “Don’t tell Luke.”  
She immediately left him there and rushed all around the mountain, looking for Luke, and found him meditating at the summit.  
“Luke!” she shouted, bringing him out of it. “I’ve had a vision! Ben is going to turn evil whether I’m here or not! No matter what happens, you have to promise me that you won’t let that happen! Promise me!”  
“I can’t promise that!” said Luke. “All I can do is try to guide him towards the light and encourage him to stay away from the darkness.”  
“Please!” said Jadma. “You have no idea what’s at stake! You have to promise!”  
“Alright!” said Luke. “I promise, I will do everything I can to prevent him from turning to the Dark Side.”  
“Thank you!” said Jadma.  
That night, Jadma waited for Luke to fall asleep, and then, with a heavy heart, she slipped away, knowing that, in order to protect their child, she would never be able to come back here or see the man she loved again.


	10. A Few Years Later

Jadma had named her daughter Ridda, because she hoped that her daughter would grow up to be as beautiful as the flowers from Oyotom and as powerful as the dragons from Diark.  
For the past five years, Jadma and Ridda had lived alone together on a ship that Jadma had purchased by selling some of her lightsabers, a ship that was big and roomy enough for them to live in comfortably and fast enough that they could outrun anything.  
For a while, everything was fine.  
Then came the night that Jadma had feared.  
She felt a great disturbance in the Force. She felt the deaths of many young, Force-sensitive beings. She touched the carving that Ben had given her, hoping that it would give her focus, and she had a vision of a teenage Ben, holding a long, green lightsaber, and cutting down his classmates with it.  
With a breaking heart, she knew that the time had come to hide Ridda.  
As she set down on Jakku, she went to her sleeping daughter, kissed her on the forehead, and administered a drug that would block out some of her memories. She did not want her daughter to come looking for her and risk getting killed in the process, so she figured that the best thing to do was to block out her daughter’s memories of her. She had an antidote that she would be able to give her upon their reunion, but even if she died before she could administer the antidote, the memories would be likely to return on their own later in life.  
She knew from personal experience that Jakku was not the best place for a little girl to grow up, but there was currently only one person she could trust to protect her daughter.  
Jadma, with her sleeping daughter in her arms, set out onto the dust ball that she had hoped to never see again, and headed straight into town.  
She found Scruffy playing cards with some other old men, and when he looked up, it was clear that he recognized her right away.  
“Jadma!” he cried. “It’s been, what, twenty years? Look at you! You’re all grown up! Who’s the kid?  
“Scruffy,” said Jadma, “remember when we first landed here and I saved you from sinking into that quicksand? Well, I’m calling in a favour. I want you to take care of my daughter until I get back.”  
“What?!” said Scruffy. “When you saved my life, I never thought you would try to get something in return someday! I thought you were better than that!”  
“And I’m warning you,” said Jadma, “I have training in the Jedi Arts now. If I get back and find that you’ve mistreated her in any way…!”  
“Fine! Fine!” said Scruffy. “Maybe this will be a way for you to make up for some of the mistakes I made raising you. But you’re coming back for her, right?”  
“I promise,” said Jadma, “as soon as I’m sure the danger is over, I’ll come back for her.”  
Then Jadma handed the sleeping Ridda over to Scruffy, kissing her on the forehead as she did so.”  
“Goodbye, Ridda,” she whispered, “I love you, and I’ll miss you!”  
And then she walked back to her ship, blinded by her tears.  
She sold her ship at a shipyard and bought a new one. Even though it was probably futile to try to throw off a Force-sensitive being this way, it still felt better than nothing.


	11. A New Life and a New Name

A little girl woke up on a table, surrounded by strange old men.  
“Where am I?” she asked. “Who are you?”  
“Kid,” said one of the men, “what’s your name?”  
The little girl suddenly realized that she couldn’t remember.  
“R… R…” she started to say. “I can’t remember! But it starts with an R sound!”  
“Then from now on,” said one of the men, “as long as you’re living here with us, your name is Rey.”  
Suddenly, through the door, Rey saw a ship blasting off.  
She didn’t know how she knew, but somehow, she knew that there was someone important aboard that ship.  
She jumped down from the table and ran outside, as if hoping to catch up with the ship.  
“Come back!” she shouted.  
One of the old men grabbed her and stopped her, and all she could do was watch helplessly as the ship left her behind.  
She felt so abandoned.


	12. Kylo Ren

The first thing that Jadma did after leaving Jakku was go to the cantina on Takodana for a drink. She knew that she probably ought not to impair her judgment right about now, but she needed something to ease the pain of leaving her daughter behind, maybe forever, and she did not want to have to erase her memory while running for her life.  
She wished that she could have left a lightsaber with her daughter, so that she would learn how to use it, but she was afraid that her daughter would either find it too soon or too late. She wouldn’t have put it past Scruffy to sell it.  
Jadma was down to her last three lightsabers. There were the red one and the blue one that she used all the time, and there was the prized blue one that she had found on Bespin that she had never dared to use because she did not want to risk it getting lost or broken.  
Suddenly, she heard her father’s voice for the first time in years.  
“Jadma,” said her father, “leave Anakin’s lightsaber here with Maz Kanata. She will see to it that your daughter gets it when she is old enough.”  
“Father?” said Jadma. “Did you say that this lightsaber used to belong to Anakin Skywalker?! Was Ridda really meant to have this?!”  
But her father would say no more.  
After Jadma told Maz Kanata her story, about how she had found the lightsaber, and about how her daughter was almost certainly meant to have it, Maz Kanata readily agreed to keep it safe for her.  
No sooner had Jadma reached interstellar space when she was attacked. The enemy ship knocked out her weapons and her hyperdrive.  
The next thing Jadma knew, she was being boarded.  
As the door to the cockpit was blasted open, Jadma jumped up, turned around fast, and activated her lightsabers.  
There, in the doorway, stood Ben Solo, the terrifying figure who had once been the cutest little boy that Jadma had ever seen.  
“Ben,” said Jadma, trying to sound emotionless, “you’ve grown.”  
“My name is Kylo Ren!” said Ben. “The little boy who was hopelessly in love with you and who gave you that wooden carving is dead!”  
Then he ignited his lightsaber. It looked like it had once been green, but was now a sickly brown colour, almost like dried blood. Clearly, he hadn’t finished bleeding the crystal yet.  
“Where is she?!” demanded Kylo Ren.  
“I’ll die before I tell you!” said Jadma. “There was a time when I loved you almost like a son, but now I have a daughter who I love more than I could ever love anything else, and now that you are a threat to her, I have no choice but to kill you! I wish it could have been otherwise.”  
“Luke Skywalker has already tried to kill me and failed!” said Kylo Ren. “So I destroyed his school and killed all of the other students! Now, all I need to do is find my cousin! I’ve gotten much better at extracting information from people’s brains, you know. If you won’t tell me what I want to know, I could just take it from you.”  
Jadma had had enough. She attacked Kylo Ren, and the fight began.  
Jadma’s two blades were a blur as she hacked and slashed at Kylo Ren, but his blade was just as fast at parrying and blocking her every attack.  
He blocked one of her lightsabers, and Jadma tried to use that chance to take a swipe at his legs with her other one, but he was too quick as he kicked her in the ribcage and sent her flying. She crashed against a control panel, and suddenly, klaxons started going off.  
Jadma decided that she didn’t have time to worry about that now.  
She deactivated the lightsaber in her right hand and tried to send Force lightning her enemy’s way, but for some reason, it wouldn’t come.  
Suddenly, she was being lifted off the ground, and she couldn’t breathe.  
She retaliated by lifting him off the ground and cutting off his air, at which point he dropped her. She dropped him too, reactivated her right-hand lightsaber, and charged at him again.  
Their fight took them all over her ship as she attacked him again and again and he blocked her again and again.  
Every time Jadma found herself remembering the sweet boy he had once been and feeling tempted to be merciful, she simply reminded herself that this was not that little boy anymore and that he meant harm to her daughter, and all thoughts of mercy went out of her head.  
She knew that, in order for her daughter to be safe, Kylo Ren had to die.  
The problem was that he was much better at lightsaber combat now than he had been the last time they met.  
Finally, Jadma got a crazy idea.  
She briefly wondered if anyone had ever thought of doing this before, and if it had ever actually worked.  
Even if it did work, she knew that it would only work once.  
She used the Force to reach inside Kylo Ren’s lightsaber, straight through to the crystal that powered it, and she moved it just slightly out of alignment.  
For a split second, she thought that it had worked when his blade guttered and died, but then it blazed back to life just as quickly as it had been extinguished, only now, the blade resembled not so much a beam of light as a rod of pure fire.  
Kylo Ren smiled that same smile that Jadma had once found adorable and said: “I actually like it better this way!”


	13. Jadma's Fate

Obi-Wan and Anakin, who had been reunited in death for some time now, watched as Obi-Wan’s daughter and Anakin’s grandson tried to kill each other.  
One thing that they knew that their descendants didn’t was that, when Jadma had crashed against that panel, she had inadvertently taken out the life support system, and that, if the fight was not resolved soon, Jadma and Ben would both suffocate.  
But it didn’t matter anyway, because they were one with the Force, and they both knew how this fight would end.  
They also both knew that, like them, Jadma had been chosen to come back and achieve immortality within the Force.  
They only hoped that they would be able to train her quickly enough once she was struck down to find her way back.  
Finally, the killing blow was struck.  
Jadma had Kylo Ren in a cross block, and as their lightsabers sizzled against each other, suddenly, Kylo Ren deactivated his lightsaber, ducked beneath Jadma’s sweeping blades, placed it directly under her chin, and reactivated it, sending the blade straight up through her skull.  
Even though Obi-Wan had known that this was coming, that had not made it any easier for him to bear.  
“I’m sorry, Obi-Wan,” said Anakin, “but we both knew that this was the way it had to be. Now, our granddaughter is safe, and she will not face my grandson until she is ready.”  
Kylo Ren deactivated his lightsaber and let Jadma’s body fall to the ground.  
Then, he picked up the little carving that he had once made for her, reignited his lightsaber, and burned a hole right through the middle of it and tossed what was left with it onto Jadma’s body in disgust. Then, he climbed back aboard his own ship and left.  
Suddenly, there was Jadma’s spirit in front of them.  
“What’s going on?” asked Jadma. “Am I dead?”  
“Jadma,” said Obi-Wan, “I am Obi-Wan Kenobi, your father, and this is my friend, Anakin Skywalker. If you want to achieve immortality, like us, then we have much to teach you in a very short amount of time.”  
And so, Jadma finally got the father that she had always wanted, and now, she would always be able to watch over her daughter.


	14. Many More Years Later

Kylo Ren was almost where he wanted to be.  
Not long ago, he had finally met his cousin, Rey.  
He had offered to teach her the ways of the Force, but instead of going with him, she had sliced his face open with a lightsaber that rightfully belonged to him.  
Then had come their link, which had allowed them to communicate with each other whether they’d liked it or not. Soon, they had developed a bizarre friendship and had even started confiding in each other.  
He had had a vision of her turning to his side, but she had had a contradicting vision of him being the one to turn to her side.  
But both visions couldn’t be true, and after all, what was there besides the Light Side and the Dark Side? Some sort of strange Grey Side?  
In any case, it had been his friendship with Rey that had allowed him to finally do the one thing that Darth Vader had never been able to do.  
Thanks to Rey, Kylo Ren had been able to destroy his master and take his place.  
But winning Rey’s friendship had only been half the battle. After all, they were still on opposite sides.  
Even though he knew the truth about Rey’s parents, he still continued to deliberately withhold that information from her. He’d told her that her parents had sold her for beer money and that she was unimportant in order to lower her self-esteem so that, upon finding out just how important she was to him, she would join him.  
Soon, he told himself, she would stand at his side as Rey Kenobi-Skywalker, and together, they would rule the galaxy as the heirs of Darth Vader.


End file.
